When Rights Holders Stop Selling Inventory, They Start Selling Sponsorship

Three rights holders. Three markets. One recurring commercial problem. Recently, I led a two-hour workshop for a professional sports organization in the northeastern United States. We focused on three specific areas: The trends changing the rights-holder marketplace and where the organization could grow its commercial portfolio. How to build a concrete go-to-market strategy through research, curiosity and better questions. How to improve the sales process while identifying endemic categories that may still be available within existing exclusivity agreements. The workshop reinforced something I have seen with clubs, teams and sports organizations around the world: Many rights holders do not have an inventory problem. They have a sales-process problem.